Has anyone heard of Via Lingua? I got an email from them today & they are TEFL school. It sounds too good to be true. They are in Corinth Greece. This is what their website says:
TEFL certificate course with Via Lingua in Corinth, Greece.

FREE FLIGHTSFor TEFL certificate courses starting June 20th, July 25th and August 29th: we'll book and pay for your flight to Greece from London. Offer valid for all paying the TEFL certificate course fee in full by 30 April. Flights are to Athens on the Saturday before each course.

Please let me know if you've heard of them and if so are they any good???

I am a graduate of Via Lingua and let me show you something I wrote for the newsletter. Now, I am not in any way affiliated with them, I just graduated from their course in Istanbul Turkey. If it wasn't for the way the system was set up and the companies great help I would not have any of the things I have now.

After completing my certificate program through Kent English in Istanbul in late August of 2004, there was a plethora of opportunities available for me. Using my M.B.A. and my newly acquired teaching certificate I contracted work with different Law firms in Istanbul before accepting a job as a Manager of a large language school. I am currently living in Eskisehir (about 4 hours south of Istanbul). My language school is on the campus of Anadolu University, and a majority of my students are University students and professors. It is a wonderful feeling when you can walk into a room and have 8 people with Ph D.ís looking up to you to help them (this was my first class when I arrived here, yes, I felt a little inadequate).
I also have been given the privilege to start teaching classes at the University, I teach 2nd and 3rd year undergraduate students in the English Faculty, teaching Colloquial English and I will start a Masters in English Language Teaching.
Along with my teaching duties at both the University and at my language school, I will also be starting an English Language television program broadcasted by the University. I brought the idea to the managers of the on-campus broadcasting station and we are currently working on the program. This program will be a once a week locally broadcasted show on the Universities channel geared to all ages and levels of English speakers.
I have been given a great apartment on the campus, with access to the pool and the gymnasium. I have a 3-minute walk to work every morning where I can see the snow covered mountains in the distance and large pines looming above me like sentries. The campus is beautiful with Japanese gardens and large outdoor fountains surrounded by grass areas for relaxing between classes.
It has been an exciting 7 months for me in Turkey, the opportunities available to us, as native speakers, are extraordinary. You will not find a more exciting place, a more wondrous, historical place then Istanbul, the Queen of cities.

I know this is geared for Turkey, but I didn't want to cut anything out. The are a wonderful company and I would suggest that you take this oppurtunity. It is worth it, the program is great very in-depth and knowledgeable.

Preston; as they say, "if it walks like a duck..."
Another nebulous operation out of poor lil' ol'Corinth. The longwinded testimonial prior to this post seems to prove that.
Yeah, Greece would be ideal, but you'd be working for zip. Good luck!

the thing about the flights is that from London to Athens you can get a flight for $4.00 on Ryan Air, so it might sound like something really expensive but actually it is not, but it can save you the trouble of getting the ticket. I don't know what kind of jobs you are going to find but I would think that it won't pay alot and probably not on the island.

Preston; as they say, "if it walks like a duck..."
Another nebulous operation out of poor lil' ol'Corinth. The longwinded testimonial prior to this post seems to prove that.
Yeah, Greece would be ideal, but you'd be working for zip. Good luck!

Amazing how some poeple make comments but know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the matter! Please be careful about comments made in ignorance!

Although the Cambridge CELTA and the Trinity CTESOL are the most widely known certificate courses, there are other courses which are excellent. I am a teacher trainer on the Via Lingua course and can see some improvements which is has made on the CELTA. Via Lingua is a SERIOUS setup - and is externally moderated by the University of Birmingham, UK. which is respected in the field of TESOL.

A candidate taking the Via Lingua course will not work in the centre they study, necessarily. The flight deal is something which they have managed to work into the price of the course in certain situations. At certain times of the year there are excellent deals on flights from the UK (off peak).

One of the trainees I have this month is from the USA. She was a little worried about leaving the US and coming to Europe to take a course. She had actually signed up 2 years ago! She said to me last week that she is "SO GLAD" she came! She is learning a huge amount.

One of the things I have appreciated in training on the Via Lingua course is the amount of time teacher trainers are given in planning their lesson practice. On the CELTA course I did many years ago we had half hour attempts at lessons. On the course we are running here in Portugal, trainees get to give a full class from beginning to end. Teaching practice is done at the end of the day (between 5 - 8 pm - in our centre).

The benefit of taking the course in one of the centres is that they are run in the types of language schools where teachers would normally find jobs afterward. Students in the teaching practice sessions are locals. In the course we are running we offer free classes at a range of levels. (Students pay a deposit of 25 Euros which they get back at the end of the course - this assures they actually come for the whole time).

This is the first year I have been a trainer with Via Lingua - and I hope it is not my last! I love it!

I did the Via Lingua course in Crete and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in doing their training course in Greece. It's a very professional school, but the trainers are excellent and I learned more in 4 weeks than I learned in 4 years of university!!! It's real, practical training that you get at Via Lingua- your lessons are observed and the feedback is instrumental. You take a really active role in your own learning, but at the end of the course you feel ready to teach. I've spoken with people who did other courses and we compared our TEFL courses as we started teaching together- and after hearing some stories, I was so glad that I'd chosen Via Lingua Crete for my course- I seem to have gotten a great deal!!!!

There are a lot of 'cowboy outfits' out there and I can understand people's concern for a company that's not as well known as, say, Cambridge- it's good to be cautious, but Via Lingua is a very, very good training course.

I got my TEFL certification with Via Lingua and would highly recommend it to anyone interested. The courses are intensive, but the trainers are professional and knowledgable and they have a really good job guidance programme. I was able to find a job within days of finishing the course! Also, they are linked with the University of Birmingham, who I contacted before I did the course- they had nothing but good things to say about the academic standards of Via Lingua.

You just the little bunny aren't you Mark? Jumping from one post to another. You have a little bit to say about everyone and everything. You seem to after something or someone, you have almost 90 posts on different threads in only one month of being a member of the forum, it has taken me a year to do that and same with a lot of others.

If you are thinking about taking a TEFL certificate course, I would strongly recommend taking a certificate that is internationally recognised. Due to the increasing numbers of unregulated TEFL schools offering "international" TEFL certificates, many employees are now requesting that certificates are notarised in the country of origin. A marketing ploy that many teacher training centres use is the fact that they are attached to a university or college, whereas they are merely paying the named institute a high fee to moderate.
I am a qualified Cambridge trainer and believe that although these types of courses are usually cheaper, the trainers rarely have qualifications. In fact, many of the trainers are past trainees from the same course who have no real teaching experience, let alone training ability. I have a colleague now, who is working as a trainer in one of these schools who was going out with the current manager and was offered a job by him. Whatever your choice, make an informed decision.